Show #196: Scooby Doo On Zombie Island

Anthony Askew braves our dread waters on a moonlit Halloween night in search of his faithful old dog who's still got a few tricks left in him! For a direct-to-video movie with no great weight of expectation on it Scooby Doo On Zombie Island sure did push the boat out in terms of doing much more exciting things with the Mystery Inc gang after decades of rehashes had inured audiences to their schtick, and is credited with revitalising the franchise as a whole. Was it the witty self-awareness? The monster butts? Was Terror Time really THAT good of a song? Our investigation proceeds after the link, within which we can also share the Halloween treats of our Post-Podcaste Repaste!

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Show #128: The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

Originally slated for a now aborted theme but it's always a good time to have Anthony Askew on to talk about The Adventures of Tintin!

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Herge's roving reporter Tintin had been adapted for animation and the big screen many a time before receiving the blockbuster treatment courtesy of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Away go the fanciful comic doodles and in come high resolution motion capture models of terrifying unrealism. What doesn't get left behind is the pulp adventure spirit of the original stories, delivering energetic action set pieces at a steady pace without derailing the plot, coming strangely full circle seeing as the director of Indiana Jones is at the helm of a film about one of its key inspirations. Give them a couple of years and we may even get those planned sequels!

THE SHORT VERSION

Amazing likenesses

Heroic sea captains

Improbable action

Show #98: BAWKSTRAALS

After many months we've finally established a link with another world! Those strange folk Anthony Askew from Dynamite In The Brain along with Martin Schneider and Joseph Wade from Front Row Central arrive in our dimension with the good news about Coraline.

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Based on the Neil Gaiman book of the same name and wonderfully animated by the stop-motion faithful at Studio Laika comes Coraline, a be-careful-what-you-wish-for-tale that is at once charming and unnerving. While it's dark fairytale aesthetic and the involvement of Henry Selick may draw comparisons Coraline adheres to no such template and proves a cut above the rest. All this plus silly accents and Martin's fantastic journey through Studio Laika!

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Christmas Creeps - a podcast about Christmas movies all year round!

Movies Silently's review of The Cameraman's Revenge, a stop-motion pioneer

THE SHORT VERSION

Spooky dolls

Spooky parents

CAT David

Show # 92: They're All Transformers

Anthony Askew and Bradley Meek break into our vaults with a casket full of compliments for Chaika the Coffin Princess!

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Straight from the creative minds behind Scrapped Princess and Strait Jacket comes the adventures of everybody's favourite caveman-speaking Django impersonator. Chaika proves to be a whale of a fun time, moving along at a sharp clip but never so quick to leave a viewer behind and striking a good balance between action, comedy and character as it goes. So fast does it fly that it isn't long before the show burns through all its source material and leaves us with a majorly abrupt ending, but such is the strength of the series as a whole that it doesn't feel like a wasted journey. Listen in for more on all this plus the SHOCKING REVELATION behind the characters' naming conventions!

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The Anime Now! Podcast

THE SHORT VERSION

Magic wands

Man eating unicorns

Survival strategies

Show #71: I'll Have To Engage PCP Power

Anthony Askew of Dynamite In The Brain is coming up fast to join us for a few laps of the way out Wacky Races!

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Wacky Races has quite the cultural footprint but besides that it's a pretty okay cartoon. It's a Hanna Barbera show so what do you expect? On this viewing we find ourselves siding with supposed villains Dick Dastardly and Muttley and pondering how they wound up in this silly situation. We spin a yarn of Cold War defection, organised crime and corruption that may not actually be true but is still a lot of fun to talk about!

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THE SHORT VERSION

War heroes

Useful gadgets

Dirty rotten cheaters